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Establishment of rapid LSC method for direct alpha/beta measurements in waters

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Abstract

Development of rapid gross alpha/beta screening in waters has been presented. Modification of conventional ASTM method assumed direct mixing of samples with liquid scintillation cocktail, without any sample pretreatment. Optimization of method involved sample-to-cocktail ratio determination based on the achieved detection limit and quench level of sample as well as the optimal value of pulse shape analysis discriminator investigation. Results of calibration experiments and method’s validity measurements are presented. Direct alpha/beta method provides deviations <40% from reference values, but offers advantages over conventional alpha/beta measurements, it is ultra fast, simple and inexpensive test for efficient screening of water samples.

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Notes

  1. α-ROI and β-ROI refer to α-Region Of Interest, and β-Region Of Interest, i.e. the counting windows set for alpha and beta spectra, respectively. α-ROI has been set between 500 and 800 channels in SP12, and β-ROI has been set between 1 and 1024 channels in SP11 [4].

References

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Provincial Secretariat for Higher Education and Scientific Research within the project “Radioactivity in drinking water and cancer incidence in Vojvodina” No. 114-451-2405/2016 and the Ministry of education, science and technological development of the Republic of Serbia within Projects No. OI171002 and III43002.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Trg Dositeja Obradovića 6, Novi Sad, Serbia

    Ivana Stojković

  2. Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Trg Dositeja Obradovića 4, Novi Sad, Serbia

    Nataša Todorović, Jovana Nikolov & Branislava Tenjović

Authors
  1. Ivana Stojković
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  2. Nataša Todorović
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  3. Jovana Nikolov
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  4. Branislava Tenjović
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Correspondence to Ivana Stojković.

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Stojković, I., Todorović, N., Nikolov, J. et al. Establishment of rapid LSC method for direct alpha/beta measurements in waters. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 314, 623–627 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-017-5346-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-017-5346-3

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